“We did well towards the end of the game to manage the game and get over the line, but there’s a lot of areas that we know we can work on and improve for the next game,” said McGuinness.

“We’ll have to take the lesson now, but to get through and win on the back of that, it’s encouraging in terms of improvements we can make.”

The 2012 All-Ireland winning boss admitted that his team struggled to break down the well-organised Orchard defensive system.

“Armagh had a lot of bodies back and it was up to us to break it down, but that’s the case normally in Ulster. Derry was the same and Antrim was the same, and in the final against Monaghan.

“I think we forced it sometimes and our decision making let us down a wee bit, and just that wee bit of composure.

“But we’ll look at the tape now, we’ll try and re-evaluate it and get things right for three week's time.”

Key players rose to the challenge in the difficult closing stages as Armagh threatened to cause a major upset at GAA Headquarters.

“Rory Kavanagh settled the thing very much when he came in, big Neil (Gallagher), Frank McGlynn in the half back line coming forward, Michael Murphy with his runs and his kicking.

“But there’s a lot of things that we know we can improve on and we have to get after those in the next three weeks.”